Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/54

24 THE ANCESTOR letter from James Harris the younger to his mother helps to illustrate :^ — . . . The King comes from Silesia the 3rd, when I must return to Berlin [from Sans Souci], his Majesty not choosing that any of us accredited foreigners should break in upon his solitude. The king felt that he might be compelled to receive the accredited ministers of foreign powers, whereas, from what is known of his domestic habits, no one of his own subjects, not even the members of the Royal House itself, would have dared to intrude upon his privacy, when privacy was what he demanded. It is not possible within the limits of this paper, nor would it be in keeping with its general scheme, to follow the first Lord Malmesbury through all the successive stages of his public life ; and the writer of these pages must emphatically disclaim any attempt or aspiration on his part to soar into the heights of historical disquisition ; but a brief account of the events which were connected with his Russian embassy may not be without its interest. Mr. Harris gave up his mission to Berlin in September, 1776, and was immediately afterwards appointed to the Court of St. Petersburgh. He arrived at the Russian capital at a moment when the political horizon was obscured by dark storm-clouds of ill omen and of serious trouble for England. She stood isolated and cut off from all the great European Powers. France and Spain were hostile to her, Prussia hated her, the Emperor Joseph II. was too much taken up with his own affairs to help her, while the Empress Catharine was far too fully occupied in diverting attention from her own projects to be of any assistance to Great Britain. Sir James Harris — by which title he is best known during his stay at the Russian Court — had there to encounter many real difficulties in the shape of underhand dealings and false protestations of support while trying to carry out the trust reposed in him. He found on his arrival at St. Petersburgh two strong parties contending for the guidance of Russian foreign policy — those who favoured hostility to England, and those who were more kindly disposed towards her. Count Panin led the former faction, while Prince Potemkin supported the latter. Fortunately for Sir James Harris however a cordial Malmesbtiry Letters (Bentley).